xiv
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
When someone is interested in the title of a text, he then reads it at glance to see the global content of the reading text that might be very useful for him to understand. If the content
is very interesting for him, he will try to read it again to get more information more detail. He might understand the text easily because he can identify the main idea accurately and follow
the supporting ideas which are written in a good grammar or structure and arranged coherently. Moreover, the ideas of the text are organized well in one unity, so misunderstanding or bias
meaning can be avoided. That is what we call a good writing. To able to produce a good piece of writing of the text which is clear, fluent, and effective
communication of ideas, the writers have to deal with content, syntax, grammar, mechanics, o ga izatio , o d hoi e, pu pose, audie e, a d the ite s p o ess. ‘ai es, A ,
: . There are many kinds of good writing text the people can find in everyday life like in a
newspaper, magazine, science books, at the public services or other places around us. Each kind of the texts has certain characteristics and depends on the purpose of it and on whom the text is
referred to. Announcement text, for example, is a kind of short functional text used to announce i po ta t i fo atio o e ou t is a ki d of the te t hi h is used to tell so ethi g that
happened in the past chronologically and many other ones that can be found in a newspaper. In short, they are useful for everybody to understand and to be able to produce some of them in
order to help someone to survive in everyday life. Due to the fact that many kinds of texts that anyone might have to do at some time or
other in everyday life such as: messages, forms, invitations, letters, and instructions, there is no better way for students for learning to produce them without having experienced to do it. If the
1
xv students experiment with these practical writing tasks in the classroom they will not only practice
writing in the new language but also learn about the conventions of the new culture. Based on the condition above the students need to know or understand them and might
produce some of them. But the fact that people frequently have to communicate with each other in writing is not the only reason to include writing as a part of the English language syllabus.
There are some additional and very important reason how writing helps the students learn. Firstly, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that we have
been teaching our students. Secondly, when the students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks.
Thirdly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language; the effort to express ideas and the constant use eye, hand, and brain is a unique way to reinforce
learning. They often discover a new way of expressing their idea and a real need for finding the right word and the right sentence. The close relationship between writing and thinking makes
writing a valuable part of the English syllabus at school. This current curriculum of English language used in Junior high school has listed many
kinds of the text which must be understood by the students. They are stated in the form of aim of learning English at Junior High School, which is enabling students to communicate using English
either in oral or in written Puskur, 2004:3. The students are expected not only to understand the language accurately but also to use it appropriately although the level difficulty of the
language that must be used is relatively simple. It can be seen at the English standard competence at Junior School.
Berkomunikasi secara lisan dan tertulis dengan menggunakan ragam bahasa yang sesuai secara lancar dan akurat dalam wacana interaksional dan atau monolog yang
melibatkan wacana berbentuk deskriptif, naratif, recount, prosedur, report, anekdot dengan variasi ungkapan makna interpersonal, ideasional dan tekstual sederhana.
Puskur; 2003: 8
xvi This goal shows that at the end of the study in the Junior High School the students are able
to: 1 communicate in oral or in written using simple language; 2 use the language in form of monolog or dialog; 3 use the language in form of descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure,
report, and anecdote text; 4 use various expressions of interpersonal, ideasonal, and textual meaning; 5 use the simple language for communication fluently and accurately.
The competence standard above is elaborated into four basic competencies which represent the four language skills, listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Listening and reading belong to
receptive skills, while speaking and writing belong to productive skills. Naturally, in the process of learning either oral or written language, the people learn it started from the receptive skills to
the productive skills. In the same way, the people learn new language orally before they know it in written.
Based on the reason above, writing is considered the most difficult one because students must not only express their ideas coherently but also write them accurately. They need to be able
to generate the mean ideas into supporting details coherently and write them using correct form of structure so what the writer means from the message can be exactly comprehended without
arising bias meaning by the reader. To identify the common problem that mostly students have in writing is not on how the way
how they express their ideas or the content of writing but on the form of writing especially in grammar and mechanic skill of writing. This is reflected in Ilona Lekis 1991 survey of 100 ESL
students who were predominately concerned with producing error-free writing. It is said that the university ESL population was not one lacking in habits of observation, critical thought, or
substance to express. Most of them were placed in ESL composition classes because they did not have enough control of English vocabulary or syntax to write fluidly, not because they cannot
generate meaning.
xvii Unfortunately, it is difficult to get current data research of writing competence of Indonesian
students except the result of the Diagnostic Survey of Teaching English in Indonesia Sadtono, E, Ha da a i, Mike O ‘eill ,
. I this esea h the fou d that the s o e of iti g o pete e was only 20, listening 32, reading 31, and speaking 26. Based on the questionnaire to all
English teachers in SMP Negeri, it shows that most difficult problem in teaching writing was to make the students good in linguistic competence.
What the researcher found in the result of the observation of teaching writi g des ipti e
te t held o the
th
April was that more than 65 percent of the sentences the students wrote e e o g. The a ilit of the stude ts li guisti o pete e as o side ed e lo e ause
most students had made errors in using agreement, vocabulary, tenses, syntax, and pronoun. They seemed to have difficulty on all aspects of writing: ideas organization, vocabulary, grammar
and mechanics. Moreover, their average score on the pre test was only 61 which was a bit far from the minimum criteria of passing grade in English language test of which the score seventy
had ee de ided as fo al stude ts i i u a hie e e t of E glish test fo this academic year.
Observing the process of teaching writing in the classroom, the researcher knew that the reading text used by the teacher as a model of giving input was considered too difficult for the
students. In the video record we could observe that most of the students were passive when the teacher gave them a chance to make questions concerning with the difficulty of the text and did
not give responses quickly when the teacher asked many questions related to the content of the text. The condition was caused by the low ability of the students in understanding difficult
vocabularies used in the text. In other word, comparing with the level English competence of the students, the researcher considers that the text used in the classroom was too difficult, so the
teacher frequently had to clarify the meaning of new vocabulary.
xviii During the process of teaching writing, the teacher did not give much opportunity to the
students to internalize the difficult grammar which had different form from their own language. He should have drilled the new pattern or asked them to do exercises that were focused on the
di ffi ult g a
a hi h had ee i te fe ed the stude ts ati e la guage. This stage hi h was done at the time between giving input of new piece of language or models of the use and
form of language and output of producing written form of language was very important step of the process of internalization of the new language.
It showed that how the learners dealt with the complex linguistic systems. The majority of stude ts e o s i p odu i g the ta get la guage, espe iall i the beginning levels, stems from
the stude ts assu ptio that the ta get la guage ope ates like the ati e la guage. O se i g the esult of the uestio ai e of stude ts ha it i lea i g E glish la guage, the
researcher found that most of the students have low motivation in learning writing see table 4.1.1 in the appendix. They realized that they had a lot of ideas in their mind but they often got
difficulty in expressing them in form of the right sentences and choosing the right vocabulary. Moreover, from the questionnaire it could be seen that most of the students thought that the
biggest problem was on the mastery of vocabulary. Then, the second problem was that they needed a lot of exposure of reading English material and to practice doing the writing tasks from
the teacher. Based on the data collection of the process of teaching writing in the classroom, the
researcher assumes some possible factors causing this problem: 1 lack of practice, 2 u suita le tea hi g te h i ue, stude ts lo otivation, 4 lack of learning resources, 5
lack of opportunity to have a lot of exposure of English language. The researcher
p oposes to use CQG“ as i teg ated te h i ues i o t ol iti g a ti it Raimes, 1983: 95 which might be suitable with the condition of students of SMPN 5
xix P o oli ggo. It o sists of fou te h i ues hi h a e suita le fo guidi g the stude ts iti g
activity from the control activity to the freer one. CQG“ sta ds fo Co t olled Co positio , Questio a d A s e , Guided Composition, and
Sentence Combining. Those techniques have been arranged chronologically for teaching writing started from very controlled activity to the freer one and are done based on the controlled to
free writing approach which means all writing the students do for which a great deal of the content and or form is supplied. In controlled tasks, for example, more is given to the students:
an outline to complete, a paragraph to manipulate, a model to follow, or a passage to continue. Even though, the researcher thinks that
CQG“ as a part of drilling activity was still important for practicing new patterns of language, it did not mean that he totally agreed with
what behaviorists thought that to teach a perfect teaching method the errors would never be committed in the first place. According to Behaviorist Richards, 1974: 20, drilling was as a way
of making students become perfect in understanding and using the language for communication, so the process of teaching and learning would be able to avoid students of making mistake in
using language. In this case, it did not mean that the researcher would not give any free writing activity at all to the students. But, it would be done by the students as a final task of the process
of learning writing after the had got p a ti e of CQG“ . Co side i g that the hole p o ess of
teaching learning used Genre Approach as an umbrella of the strategies of teaching writing, making errors in producing the language was a part of natural way of the learner in acquiring the
new language.
B. Statement of Research Problem
Kategori